When the winery founded by
Patricia Kluge was on the block in December, no one came close
to the bank's
$19-million minimum. But at the upcoming April 7 absolute
auction, someone will go home with a winery– or part of one.

An absolute auction means the highest bidder gets the property,
with no minimum, and the owner can't bid on it, explains Bill
Shmidheiser, attorney for Farm Credit, which is trying to recoup
its
$35-million loan to Kluge.

"It assures buyers the property will be sold at the highest price,"
he says. "The public knows the owners are not testing the
waters."

The 901-acre Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards has been divvied up
into six tracts.

"As a whole, it's a big bite," explains Shmidheiser.

But at least one high-profile potential buyer– The Donald– may
think splitting the property is a mistake.

Tommy Gilliam, as his family called him, is second from the right, with his younger brothers, James and Benjamin, his mother, Vicki, and father Tom.

PHOTO COURTESY GILLIAM FAMILY

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Thomas W. Gilliam IV's last day alive had been "magnificent,"
says his grandfather. The 19-year-old UVA student went to church
with his grandparents and his father, who was in town for dental
work from Ireland, where the family lived. They went out to lunch
and then he worked on his resume with his dad. They went to a
performance of Celtic Woman at John Paul Jones Arena Sunday night,
March 27, and dropped Tom off at his dorm at 10pm.

"He said he had to finish a paper," says Tom Gilliam Jr., the
young man's grandfather.

Two hours later, he was dead, the victim of what authorities
believe was an accidental fall from the roof of the Physics
Building.

"He slipped and fell," says his grandfather.

An emergency call came in at 11:15pm, Gilliam was taken from the
McCormick Road building at 11:38pm, and he arrived at the UVA
Medical Center at 11:43pm, where he died.

"At this time, we do not believe that either foul play or
alcohol were involved," says UVA spokesperson Carol Wood in a
release. "Nor do we believe that this was a suicide. Investigators
believe it was a tragic accident." An autopsy is being
performed.

UVA police are investigating the incident, and issued a
statement Monday night that the east door of the Physics Building
was compromised, and that Gilliam entered through that door and
opened the main door to let in other students.

"Unfortunately, with the snow and rain on Saturday and Sunday,
the roof of the Physics Build...

As snow was falling over the county early Sunday morning, gunfire rang out just off of Hydraulic Road, and a woman became the year's first victim of a shooting in Albemarle. Charged in the incident is John Wesley Morris, a 53-year-old Charlottesville resident, who reportedly fled the scene and was captured in his vehicle in the Free Union/Earlysville area less than two hours later.

The victim, an unnamed woman, received a gunshot wound to her neck, but her injuries were described by an Albemarle County Police Department release as "non life-threatening." The release indicates that the March 27 incident occurred around 1:40am in the 1800 block of Inglewood Drive with the arrest around 3:05am on Buck Mountain Ford Road.

Published reports suggest that Morris is no stranger to violence. In 1985 he was convicted of the double homicide of Ricky Clements and Monte Wanless at the Pantops-area Hardee's restaurant. He was sentenced to 46 years, and according to the Department of Corrections, released in January 2008.

Neighbors point to this burn pile as the source of prior fires-- and the fateful one.

file photo by hawes spencer

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The criminal trial has been pushed back, but the burned fields
of Ragged Mountain Farm have recently emerged to look greener than
the surrounding fields spared from flames during the recent
609-acre wildfire that began on a wind-whipped Saturday in
February.

"That's not surprising," says
Sam Lindblom, who burns fields across the Commonwealth as the
land program manager for the Virginia Nature Conservancy. Lindblom
says the combination of ample rainfall during the spring growing
season, black ash to heat the land, and an explosion of nutrients
unleashed by the recent flames created a "perfect combination" for
rejuvenated fields.

"And whammo," says Lindblom, "that's why it's so green."

Meanwhile, accused fire-starter Alex Toomy has won a continuance
on the two charges stemming the blaze. The hearing was to have
occurred on Monday, March 28, but his lawyer, Michael Derdeyn,
confirms that his client will instead appear for trial on May
31.

Another grand Albemarle house is headed toward the auction
block. Upper Bundoran, the house built by the son of the man who
built Scott Stadium, is under foreclosure and will be sold on the
courthouse steps April 18.

"That's completely separate financing and a separate lot," says
Robert H. Baldwin Jr., general manager of Edge Valley Preservation
LLC, the company developing Bundoran Farm. "Foreclosures are never
good. We take them very seriously."

Royal Bank of Canada is calling its $3.1 million credit line on
Upper Bundoran, which has been listed for sale for $2.6 million.
"It's underwater," acknowledges Baldwin.

The plan for the 2,300-acre Bundoran Farm is to keep most of its
acreage under conservation easement as pasture, forest, and
orchards, and to plant 108 residential lots in the middle of that.
"Tax credits are not part of our plan," say Baldwin of the popular
land preservation perk used by some developers, such as
Biscuit Run's, to mitigate investment losses.

Bundoran Farm sales have picked up, with 17 lots recently sold.
"We suffered like everybody else," says Baldwin. "For a year and a
half, we didn't make a single sale...